


Rainbow in a Hailstorm

by MistressofHappyEndings



Category: Thor (Movies) RPF
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-08
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-03 23:59:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1074595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistressofHappyEndings/pseuds/MistressofHappyEndings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From a half-remembered, long-ago prompt on norsekink:  Set after the first Thor movie, a deranged fan kidnaps Tom.  Chris and Kenneth get him back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rainbow in a Hailstorm

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when I go browsing through the unfilled prompts after watching Wallander for the umpteenth time…

“Tom!” Chris bellowed, kicking in the half-rotten front door and bolting inside. “Tom, if you’re here, answer me! Please, Tom, please let me know you’re here, God, please be here!”

When he heard no reply, Chris tore through the house, searching and screaming for his missing friend ~ Goddammit, that crazy bastard had better have been right about this! ~ before finally wrenching open the door leading to the cellar. He nearly tripped down the stairs in his haste to reach the bottom.

“Tom, are you here?”

He whirled when he heard a faint rustling noise and slapped at the wall, trying to find a light switch. He flinched as the glare of a bare bulb filled the damp space, and he had to reach out a hand to steady himself as he ran into an unseen piece of furniture. He looked down to find a small table situated under the light switch and on it sat an open tackle box, it’s contents scattered across the scarred wood surface, hooks, fishing line, and the like. 

Chris scowled at the display then jerked around when a horrible grunting noise sounded behind him. A thin whine of horror escaped him at the nightmare that confronted him. Across the darkened space, a naked man cowered on his knees, covered in bruises and filth. His hands and feet were tightly bound with a coarse rope that had bit deeply into the thin skin of his wrists and ankles, making them bleed. His arms were stretched above his head and held there with a second rope. A dirty burlap bag covered his head. As Chris stood there frozen, the man whimpered and tried to make himself smaller against the wall. 

“Tom!”

Chris crossed the distance between them in two long strides and fell to his knees in front of Tom. A harsh shudder had Chris tearing off his jacket and wrapping it around Tom’s thin, trembling frame. The big man felt his heart break at the pitiful cry and flinch his actions caused. With hands that shook slightly, he reached for the hood and carefully removed it to reveal his missing friend’s stark, tear-streaked face. The green of his eyes were almost completely swallowed by black, terror eclipsing all reason as the moans became louder and more frantic, his struggles increasing exponentially.

“Sweet Christ, Tom,” Chris whispered, sickened beyond all reason, “what did he do to you?”

Tom couldn’t answer with anything coherent. His mouth had been sewn shut with five dark X’s. Blood gleamed dull and tacky around the swollen wounds and down his chin, striping his neck in gory rivulets. Another rope circled his throat, the ends looped through a metal hoop screwed into the concrete wall behind him, and more red-brown blood stained the surrounding flesh.

Chris shook himself out of his stupor when Tom’s thrashing didn’t abate. He caught the other man’s head between his hands and leaned in close to talk directly into his ear, trying to calm him, reassure him that he was now safe.

“Shush, now, shush, Tom, it’s okay. You’re safe. I’m here, it’s going to be all right. He can’t hurt you anymore, Ken and I saw to that. Please, Tom, calm down, it’s Chris. I’ve got you, Tommy, I’ve got you.”

How long he went on, he neither knew nor cared, only that eventually, Tom’s panicked movements stilled to an all over shiver. Chris felt his heart break into even smaller pieces at the older man’s desperate bravery. As he fumbled in his pockets for his Swiss Army knife to cut Tom free, he spoke softly and gently to his terrified friend.

“Ssh, mate, easy, it’s me, it’s Chris, I’ll have you free in a moment.” 

As soon as he’d sawed through the ropes holding Tom captive, Chris caught him as he helplessly pitched forward. Tom stared at him with wild, green eyes, another pitiful moan breaking past stitched lips. Chris swiftly gathered the smaller man into his lap, wrapping him up in his arms and legs, completely cocooning his friend in his warmth and presence.

Tom laid limply in his embrace for several long moments while Chris rocked them both slowly, murmuring over and over again “You’re safe, I’m here now, I found you, it’s going to be okay, I have you” until Tom finally stirred enough to hook his fingers into the fabric of Chris’s t-shirt. His long legs drew up until his knees dug into Chris’s ribs. He hid his face against the broad chest and cried silent, weary tears. 

Chris nestled Tom a bit closer into the protective curve of his own body, one arm around his shoulders, the fingers of his other hand threading through the matted curls, cradling the dark head against his shoulder. “Sssh, I know, it’s all right, Tommy, you’re safe now. I’m going to get you out of here and to a hospital and then home where you belong.” 

The mention of a hospital drew a whine of protest and a fresh round of tremors from Tom. “Don’t worry, I’ll be with you the entire time, mate. I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”

Some of the tension in Tom’s battered body eased at this declaration, and the two friends sat quietly huddled together, Chris stroking Tom’s hair, Tom simply resting against his strength. But the injured man grew restless once more, and he tugged insistently at Chris’s shirt. 

“Yeah, Tommy?”

Tom tugged again then reached one hand towards his face. Chris caught his hand and forced himself to look away from Tom’s ravaged mouth to his watery eyes. “What do you need, Tom?”

Tom freed his other hand and again gestured towards his face, his fingers just barely brushing over the crooked line of X’s. Chris’s eyes widened as he comprehended what Tom wanted him to do.

“You want me to cut the - the - oh God, Tom,” Chris swallowed hard against a sudden urge to vomit. “Tom, I - I could cut them open, if you really want me to, but I don’t want to - I can’t hurt you, Tommy. Don’t you want to wait for the hospital, painkillers?”

Tom vehemently shook his head, naked pleading in his green eyes. Chris caved. “Okay, I’ll - I’ll do it.” Chris fumbled again with his knife to find the scissor attachment. “Just come here, okay, like this.” He shifted to rest Tom’s head back into the hollow of his shoulder and raised the scissors.

Tom winced at the cool metal touch, his trembling increasing, but he remained still enough for Chris to work. As he carefully snipped at the threads, the big man noticed the jagged tears around the puncture marks and knew then how hard Tom must have fought. Through the rending horror of each cut, he felt a surge of pride for his friend’s fortitude.

He whispered soothing nonsense as best he could through his own tears, trying hard not to cringe at every whimper his actions caused. Blood beaded slowly, broke, and trickled into the seam of Tom’s mouth before winding a thin trail down the side of his face. When the final thread was severed, Tom opened swollen lips in a wrenching sob of Chris’s name and scrabbled at the remaining knots in his skin. “Out, please, Chris, get them out of me!”

“Stop, Tom, stop it now,” Chris ordered softly, voice edged with compassion and grief, easily trapping Tom’s hands against his own chest. “I can’t do that, mate, I can’t. The - the wounds have healed too much around the knots. If I tried to remove them, I’ll hurt you. I can’t - please, don’t ask me that, Tommy.” He brought Tom’s hands to his mouth and held them there briefly. “Please don’t ask me.”

Red-rimmed eyes studied him for a span of heartbeats then cool fingertips grazed through the tears still tracking down Chris’s face. Tom nodded slowly and slumped back into his friend’s strong arms.

“C-crazy,” he mumbled hoarsely. “He’s crazy, thought I was Loki, you were Thor, that I was going to h-hurt you, he said he had to s-stop m-me, Chris, he was going to kill m-me.”

“Sack of shit won’t be doing anything to anyone,” Chris growled lowly, shoulders hunching in suppressed rage, though he didn’t let it reach the hands that held Tom. “We made sure of that, Ken and I.”

Tom stared at him with an indecipherable look. “What did you do?” 

“Not nearly enough.”

Before Tom could reply, a shout of both their names came from upstairs. Chris responded with a shout of his own, and moments later, Ken clattered down the stairs. He jumped the last two steps, bounced off the same wall that Chris had, and skidded to his knees before the seated pair. He quickly shed his coat and added it to the one already covering Tom. His blue eyes widened in stunned disbelief when Tom raised his head, and he could see the worst of the damage done to his young friend for himself.

“Oh my dear boy,” Ken choked out. He reached out and cupped the side of Tom’s face gently, tears welling in his eyes, then he leaned down and pressed a tender kiss to his forehead. “We’ve got you now,” he whispered against the fevered skin. The younger man nodded slightly, leaning into the offered comfort, one hand sneaking between them to hook in the loose weave of Ken’s sweater and hold on tight.

Ken covered Tom’s hand with his free one and settled himself in front of the other two men. He glanced up at Chris. “Police and ambulance will be here soon. I called them on my way here.”

“Yeah,” Chris answered absently as he resumed rocking their charge. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Ken echoed, and all three fell silent, giving and receiving what comfort they could from each other, until the faint sound of sirens wound down the stairwell to them, the promise at last of help and safety.

End.


End file.
